The soldiers stood around holding the opened packages they’d confiscated from Mauve.

"Sir, can we keep the contents? My wife will love this dress." One asked holding up a beautiful pink silk gown.

"I can give this to my son." Another held up a small boat carved from wood.

Marix shook his head.

"The story he’s going to give is that he was attacked by wolves and lost the packages out here in the forest. Do you think no one is going to come looking for these things? We have to stage it to ensure his story isn’t questioned." He began tearing up some of the intimate portraits using a branch and scattering them amongst the bushes and area.

"Sir, what if he tells them that he met the Viraaz army at the border? What if he tells them that we are preparing for battle? You can’t be sure he’ll relay the story we gave him."

Marix crossed his arms, "You’re right. I can’t. But, if he were to tell them that he ran into Viraaz soldiers out here and they confiscated his packages, then what do you think will happen?"

"We’ll be attacked....." One of the soldiers said quietly.

Marix raised his index finger and wiggled it.

"Word will get around first as they wonder if a young boy can be believed. They’ll see the wounds on him and wonder why the soldiers confiscated the bag of such a young boy and injured him as opposed to killing him or making him silently disappear."

The men nodded slowly as they followed along.

"Yeah? So how does this help us though?" Another piped up.

"Word will get around as they debate, and eventually either someone from the group of nobles who is secretly sending packages and letters back and forth will come to check or an official will get a hold of the information. Either way, when they come to see if it’s true, we’ll be long gone by then and all that will remain will be what looks to be an animal attack."

"And destroyed goods." A third soldier added.

"Yes. Why would the army have any need to let a child survive and not take goods with them? He’ll either tell them it was a wolf attack or they won’t believe him. So, destroy everything and leave it around to look like animals got to it. As for the food, you can eat it, but leave the containers looking like it was picked apart."

The soldiers quietly celebrated as they carried out his orders of destroying the confiscated goods.

Underneath a bush they shoved the small wooden boat, they dragged the dress through the dirt and tore its sleeve before tossing it at the base of a tree, other articles of clothing were strewn apart and pressed into the dirt with their knees to avoid leaving shoe prints on them. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Marix oversaw it, making sure the scene looked natural enough that anyone would believe animals and the elements got to them.

As for the satchel, Marix carried it a few paces away from the main ’destruction’ zone. He dirtied it up a bit and stuck twigs and a few pieces of debris from the packages inside. Next, he tore the handle at the base, not all the way through, but enough that it looked like it had been snagged on a few things and drug away with some force.

When he was pleased with his work in beating it up, he hooked it on a piece of bark that was sticking out of one of the nearby trees.

’Hooking it on a branch will make it too obvious.’ He thought as he took a step back to appreciate the job he’d done.

When he returned to the group, the soldiers were chit chatting about their excitement to eat the Solan delicacies.

"I haven’t been able to eat these in so long. I love butter pie more than anything."

"When I was a kid my mom used to always get me those at the Summer Sun Festival. My mouth is watering just thinking about it."

"Are you guys kidding? The sun scones are where it’s at. It’s the perfect summer treat. Nothing tastes more like summer than a cucumber. I’d love to know how they made them so my wife could make them for me."

"I wonder how they got these? It’s not summer time yet. Aren’t these exclusive to the Festival?"

Marix cleared his throat as he interrupted their conversation. They all turned to him and immediately saluted.

"You only think they’re exclusive to the Festival because you’re never there in spring time. Butter pie is available all year long and sun scones are available for spring and summer. Although, whoever sent them must’ve had a lot of money. They’re not readily available just anywhere."

The men smiled and stared at their General with complete admiration.

"Of course Marix would know, he gets invited to all sorts of events all over the continent!"

Marix nodded and held his hand up to stop their further praises of him.

"Enough. Eat your pastries at lunch time, we have to get going. We don’t have time to be lollygagging, especially if we don’t want to be here when someone comes to check up on Mauve’s story."

The men all agreed and packed the pastries away in their saddle bags along with their other provisions.

"Whoever takes up the rear of the group, grab a frond and drag it behind you to cover up our tracks from this area. No need for shoe prints and horse tracks to give away the fact we were here."

Back at the Evans Estate, Tryde was working his magic on the younger batch of maids. The girls were absolutely swooning over him, batting their eyelashes and biting their lips during breaks.

The men and the older women didn’t care about him at all and even seemed to despise him a bit for being there.

’No use in trying to get information out of them. I’ll have to focus on these girls. Not much time anyways.’

He flashed his award winning smile and leaned against the wall as the girls practically fought each other to get his attention.

"Tryde your looks are so exotic! Where are you from? You don’t look like you’re from Sola!"

"Yeah Tryde where do you come from? Are you from Greia or maybe Sarude? Or are you a bad boy from the outskirts~?"

Tryde laughed and ran his hand through his blonde locks.

"I guess you can say I’m from Greia. My parents are from Viraaz. That’s where I was born, but they moved to Greia when I was young to start up a farm. It was my dad’s dream or whatever." He rolled his eyes with a laugh.

"Oh my gosh! You’re not a Viraaz Rat right? You’re totally a Greian God? Right?"

’Right. The youth of Sola began to refer to us as Viraaz Rats. But Greian God? Is that new slang?’

Tryde chuckled and shook his head, "God no. Never a Viraaz Rat. Greian God? I’m not so sure about that either. I’m definitely all for Sola. I have decided to make my life here after all."

The girls stared at each other and started screaming and giggling, "A Solan Siren~!"

’Solan Siren?? What on earth-?’

"What made you want to move to Sola, Tryde?" One of the girls asked, absolutely beaming.

He smiled and cupped her cheek, "The women here are much more beautiful."

All the girls started to scream and giggle even louder and the girl whose cheek he had just touched? She practically melted straight to the floor.

One of the maids was quiet in the corner. She had forest green hair that came down in ringlets and brown eyes. She glanced up at the commotion surrounding him here and there but never approached or spoke herself.

Unlike the other staff, she also didn’t get excited or overjoyed at their special meals either, at least not as exuberant as the others.

She’d sit and smile, her eyes would light up, but that was the extent of it. She didn’t chit chat or mingle with the other staff either but instead just kept to herself.

However, the way she continually eyed him and the other girls told him she may just be his pathway to finding out the information he needed.

After all, the other girls were far too busy trying to flirt with him and get him into bed to answer his questions.

Anytime he tried to bring them up, they’d just usher him on to the next topic of conversation or shift it into a flirtatious topic.

’Target acquired.’

He approached her while the girls were busy fangirling over him being a ’Solan Siren’ whatever that meant and caught her gaze.

"Hey. I’m Tryde. You are?"

She gave him a small smile and spoke. Her tone was soft and quiet. "Hi. My name is Aleiza."